Module 9. Designs, tools and techniques for monitoring

Monitoring designs

Monitoring frameworks are likely to need to use a number of designs, each of which comprise a mixture of different methods and tools. For instance:

• A 'light touch' approach based on key informant interviews and the recording of observations by programme staff might be used to check that an intervention was on course
• Towards the end of a pilot intervention, an experimental or statistical approach might be used to evaluate its impact on incomes or employment, in order to assess the merits of scaling it up
• Review of secondary data (e.g. market statistics and press reports) might be combined with a programme of key informant interviews in order to understand what is happening in the wider market system.

The designs will need to be specified according to the context and the specific issues to be investigated. Thinking through what information will help to answer the measurement questions (Module 1) or to generate data for indicators (Module 3), while taking into account resource constraints are key considerations.